{"id":1049,"date":"2017-12-01T07:04:00","date_gmt":"2017-12-01T07:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.smallpage.online\/2017\/12\/01\/the-start-of-nativity-fast-why-do-we\/"},"modified":"2019-04-25T09:50:22","modified_gmt":"2019-04-25T09:50:22","slug":"the-start-of-nativity-fast-why-do-we","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/2017\/12\/the-start-of-nativity-fast-why-do-we","title":{"rendered":"The Start of the Nativity Fast: Why do we fast from foods?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

We have begun the joyous and holy Nativity Fast. The fast begins on November 28, or forty days before the Nativity in the flesh of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and ends on the feast itself or January 7, according to the secular calendar. Just as the Jews wandered in the wilderness for forty years before entering the Promised Land, the Holy Church leads us for forty days into the wilderness of the Fast before entering into God\u2019s promise revealed on the Nativity. For the Jews, it was in order to shake off the bonds of slavery \u2014 physical, mental, and spiritual. An entire generation of people born and raised in Egyptian slavery was to die before those who no longer remembered being slaves and those who were born free were allowed to enter the \u201cland flowing with milk and honey\u201d (Exod. 3:8).\u00a0 And so it is with us: we must shake off the bonds of slavery to sins and passions\u2014 physical, mental, and spiritual. We must cease being slaves of sin and become friends of Christ by keeping His commandments (John 15:14).<\/p>\n

There are several aspects of the fast, all of which are important and connected to each other. The first thing about which many people think are the limitations in the quality and quantity of foods that we eat.\u00a0 The Nativity Fast is not as strict as some other fasts\u2014fish is allowed on all Saturdays and Sundays, except the last weekend before Nativity (January 2-3), and on several Church Feasts: The Entry of the Theotokos into the Temple (December 4) and its apodosis (December 8), the feasts of the Kursk-Root Icon of the Theotokos (December 10), Sabbas the Sanctified (December 18), the Conception of the Theotokos (December 22), and Saints Herman of Alaska and Martyr Peter the Aleut (December 25).<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Holy Church gives to us times of fasting in order to help heal and restore our corrupted nature. An athlete does not win a prize before patiently exercising discipline and \u201cself-control in all things\u201d (1 Cor. 9:25). And if we are to receive an \u201cimperishable wreath\u201d (ibid.), we must do the same and begin by taking control of that in us which is most material, restoring the divinely-ordained order and reaching to that which is the most spiritual. If we cannot control our bellies, how can we hope to control our tongues and thoughts, how can we hope to even begin to fight our passions? We must learn to discipline our bodies, because without this foundation we cannot begin to build the walls of the temple of our soul. And just as the purpose of a foundation is not in itself, but in that which can be built upon it, the purpose of taking control of our flesh is in freeing the soul from being controlled by it.<\/p>\n

This year, the beginning of our Nativity Fast came on the day after Thanksgiving.\u00a0 I know that for some, the main dish was not a turkey or a pumpkin pie, but other people, whom they tore apart and devoured by gossip, judging, evil talk, and back-stabbing.\u00a0 What good is their fast if they continue to feast on humans?\u00a0 What good is their abstinence from meat if their tongue flings about like a butcher\u2019s cleaver?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The King and Prophet David says, \u201cKeep your tongue from evil\u201d (Ps. 34:13), and \u201cI will bless the Lord at all times, His praise shall continually be in my mouth\u201d (1, 2). If we want our fast to be more than a weight-loss program, we must follow the regiment prescribed by the Prophet. We should learn to control our tongue and our thoughts by directing both to communion with God. At all times but especially during fasts, we must be \u201csober and watchful,\u201d because our \u201cadversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking some one to devour\u201d (1 Pet. 5:8). But in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, we have a sure protection from the attacks of the devil.<\/p>\n

Run to Christ in prayer, but be watchful that your prayer does not become like \u201ca noisy gong or a clanging cymbal\u201d (1 Cor. 13:1). Pay close attention to the words of prayers; make them not just someone\u2019s words repeated by you, but truly your own words that come from your whole heart, your whole soul, and your whole mind (cf. Matt. 22:37).<\/p>\n

Run to Christ in reading the Gospels, but be watchful that it does not become a chore whose meaning is forgotten the minute that the book is closed.\u00a0 Ask the Most Holy Theotokos to help you keep all the things that you read in the Gospels and to ponder them in your heart (cf. Luke 2:19, 51) as you go about your day, glorifying God for his abundant mercy to us.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Run to Christ in reading the lives of His saints, but make sure that you own life follows in the footsteps of the holy men and women that came before you.\u00a0 We do not study the lives of the saints for their literary value or as some pastime before we go to bed.\u00a0 They are a living example of what it means to be a Christian, and to love God, and to love one another.<\/p>\n

Most importantly, run to Christ in the Communion of His Body and Blood, but do so in humility and repentance, lest with the morsel Satan enters into you, as he did into Judas (John 13:27).<\/p>\n

May the all-merciful God bless this time of our fasting.\u00a0 May He accept our small human efforts and by His divine grace \u201cwhich always heals that which is infirm and supplies what is lacking,\u201d receive our prayers and guide our lives toward His commandments.\u00a0 May He \u201csanctify our souls, make chaste our bodies, correct our thoughts, and purify our intentions\u201d that together with \u201cthe assemblies of angels and the choirs or martyrs\u201d we may always glorify the Holy Trinity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We have begun the joyous and holy Nativity Fast. The fast begins on November 28, or forty days before the Nativity in the flesh…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22046,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[56],"tags":[17,25],"class_list":["post-1049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church-life-issues","tag-lent-and-fasting","tag-orthodox-how-to"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/multiplication-of-loaves-and-fishes-c-osseman-1.jpeg","views":{"total":95,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1768423428},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paPyw9-gV","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1049"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1049\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22047,"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1049\/revisions\/22047"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}